Infusion devices and systems have become relatively prevalent in the medical field for use in delivering or dispensing prescribed medication such as insulin to a patient. In one form, such devices comprise a transportable, pocket-size pump housing capable of receiving a reservoir of medication for administration to the patient through an associated catheter or infusion set.
Infusion devices have significant advantages over traditional medication delivery methods because of their precision, consistency, and versatility. Patients are able to set exact dosage amounts and generally benefit from receiving medication from pumps during physical activity or other occasions that would otherwise not easily be suited for doing so. As a result, infusion pumps have effectively reduced the restrictions that a diabetic patient's medical needs place upon him allowing the patient to live a more active and fulfilling lifestyle.
Generally, medication reservoirs have been used with the infusion devices to invasively deliver medication to the patient. According to the patient's needs, the medication reservoirs are available in various sizes in order to hold various amounts of medication or fluid. Typically, the medication reservoir is operatively inserted in, or attached to, the infusion device. A plunger is then actuated to force medication out of the reservoir, and deliver the medication via a tube to an insertion set on the patient.
A problem associated with a typical infusion device is that the device can only accommodate one reservoir size because a reservoir compartment in the infusion device has fixed dimensions (i.e. length, width, height, diameter, etc.). To administer medication contained in reservoirs of different sizes, a plurality of infusion devices are required to respectively accommodate the different-sized reservoirs. Hence, a patient having access to only one infusion device is limited to only using reservoirs of one size.
Accordingly, what is needed is an apparatus and method for facilitating a single infusion device to accommodate reservoirs of varying sizes. Doing so would eliminate the need for multiple devices when administering medication from different-sized reservoirs is desired.